Any artist is welcome to send us a track via freshonthenet.co.uk anytime between Monday lunchtime and Thursday morning - and all our moderators, including Tom Robinson, will listen to every track. This is our full inbox from the week beginning Mon 25 June: from midday on Friday you'll be able to hear our shortlist and pick your favourites on this week's Listening Post which will appear at freshonthenet.co.uk/batch289

If a track you submitted does not appear in this list, it’s probably because another of your tracks appeared in our Fresh Faves or on the BBC Music Introducing Mixtape during the last three months — we ask that artists featured on either wait three months before resubmitting to give others a chance. You will be able to resubmit the track in future.

ENTIRE INBOX: Batch 289

Photo Credit:  Copyright Phil Crowder

We’re walking through the sea spray,
finding little rainbows
and brightly coloured plastic
is getting in-between our toes.

We’re blowing up a sand storm
kicking pebbles and shells
and brightly coloured plastic
is everywhere we go.

And it goes to show how far it flows
when we throw away our harmless little trinkets. 
You wouldn’t really think it.  

We’re playing with the seagulls,
they’re screeching ‘cause they know
the brightly coloured plastic
ain’t as bright as it glows.

The colours are fantastic
but the damage is drastic
and this brightly coloured plastic
is getting up our nose.

And it goes to show how long it lasts.
Some of these brightly coloured things
have come a long way from the past.

So when you cast away your cares and woes,
just think for a minute about where that plastic goes.

We’re walking on the shoreline
thinking how the tide turns,
waiting for a sea change
when one day we might learn.

We’re sitting at the seaside
having lovely daydreams,
hoping for a future
where this beach stays clean.

Beach Cleaners

Produced, arranged and mixed by Matteo Galesi; played by Larry Mindel, Mateo Galesi and Joao Silva (strings).

Single released 11th June 2021

PRS Tunecode 462416CP

Whisper The World Away

Growing can be hard. Because part of you, burrowed down in sorrow says ‘it’s warm here’. But each day you push against it, you feel it’s power fade.

Fading

Winter is the newest blue
Pins and needles biting blue
Strumming slow the ice guitar
Raynaud’s fingertips on cue

Winter is the newest blue
Magpie wing the night shift blue
Creases cross the freezing scar
Blizzards blow the snowdrift skew

Winter is the newest blue
Evening loch lamenting blue
Older than the distant star
The wind that pulls the ripples through

Winter is the newest blue
Sleeping dormer windows blue
Final like a double bar
Bleakest, blackest, boundless hue

Winter Is The Newest Blue

The third single from our Weather Balloons EP, Bluer Skies highlights the cracks in the consumer dream of the 1950s.

SONG CREDITS
Words and Music: Dora Lachaise and Jonni Slater
Produced by: Jonni Slater
Recorded at 79Wave Studios
Mixed by: Jonni Slater
Mastered by: Nick Cooke

Dora Lachaise: Vocals, acoustic guitar
Jonni Slater: Vocals, keyboards
Ian Bostic: Drums

LYRICS:
Bluer skies and golden days
It’s the promise that we made
She was dressed in white
I didn’t hesitate

Bluer skies and glistening waves
His sunburnt skin and aftershave
Forever in the sun
Life had just begun

At times I dream of you
You almost become real
You dive into the blue
You're picture perfect
I never want to see you fade

A sky-blue dress
A permanent wave
A brand new home with microwave
A garden out the back
Paint over the cracks

Bluer skies, I keep the receipts 
Come home late
They’re all asleep
Our smiling family
Just like on TV

At times I dream of you...

Bluer skies never lured me away

Weather Balloons

Dora Lachaise and Jonni Slater - Bluer Skies

Better

Bitter sweet, it is an album about the profundity of life, birth and death. It is hopeful like the Beatles, powerful like Neil Young. Driven by the acoustic guitar. Indie folk at its best...

Middle Of Everywhere

Richard

Daz Rice's Debut album 'Precious Times' took 2 years to write, he then performed them live to see which songs worked best which then led to recording 10 of the best tracks - Daz being a Multi-Instrumentalist played, recorded, mixed and produced the whole album within a year, wanting to capture those precious moments in ones life and express them through his music.

Precious Times

Dark Room

LYRICS
I was once on a distant shore
I remember at least that part
Taken by storm, out on a journey 
Now I look for a place for the heart 
I will find me a place for the heart

With a blanket to keep me warm
I am sure that I will go far
And if it means ever returning
I will look for a place for the heart 
I will find me a place for the heart

I am certain I heard you call
And I know just how lost you are 
Even asleep, I can still hear you 
So I look for a place for the heart 
I will find me a place for the heart

You go down to the sea as the tide comes in
You know just what it means as you go under again

Well, I know I’ve been here before
It was under a different star 
Travelled the world many times over 
Now I look for a place for the heart 
Till I find me a place for the heart
I will find me a place for the heart

***
Music: Maaike Siegerist
Lyrics: Jim Blackmann

Performed by: 
Maaike Siegerist (vocals, guitar) 
Susanna Downes (piano)

Mastered by:
Josh Clark of Get Real Audio

A Place For The Heart

Piano Miniature #1

MATT MEREPORT - Piano Miniature #1

A song about loneliness and social isolation. A song for the invisible souls who no-one notices.

Angella Corinna Demo 2005

Isolation

I Never Came Close

From an attic overlooking Arnos Vale Cemetery in Bristol, Dora Lachaise produces dark and otherworldly music. After her Danny Elfman-esque debut single Bone Collector, which was picked up by BBC Bristol and Amazing Radio USA, Lachaise dives into electronica for her second single ‘I Confess’, out on Friday 5 March 2021.

LYRICS
In the name of the mother, the daughter, and the sacred soul

I don’t recognise myself in your words
You say I’ve a lot to be sorry for
And you braid my hair
And give me a golden dress to wear
Now I am forgiven

I confess; I am guilty
I’m lost inside this moment
With splinters for a heart
I’m still in love
That’s what I’m guilty of

I don’t recognise myself in your words
Mine lay buried in the desert sand
And you used my name - Mary Magdalene
To silence your daughters
So they would remain
Like children forever

I confess; I am guilty
I’m trapped inside this moment
With splinters for a heart
I’m still in love
That’s what I’m guilty of

I didn’t fall - but I felt your hand on my back
I didn’t fall - you pushed me towards the edge
Have you forgotten how to love

***
Written and produced by Dora Lachaise
Mixed by Jonni Slater
Mastered by Nick Cooke

I Confess

Escaping from Tron straight into Miami Vice along a flickering neon highway.  Has had airplay on BBC Introducing in the West.

------------------------
Midnight highway
Ride that light ray
Run from the night wave
Born in a neon glow 
Backlit raceway
Now what you say?

Left through right brain
Make your own game
Straight from the mainframe
Born in a neon glow 
It’s our way out
It’s you and me now

Generator
Light the way

Spotlight full flight
Timing just right
Escape from the arclight
Born in a neon glow 
Midnight light ray
Meet me halfway

Hit like light wave
Trip all night, rave
Take what the night gave
Born in a neon glow 
It’s our way out
It’s you and me now

Generator
Light the way

-----------------------

ALFONSE
Store: http://alfonse.bandcamp.com
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/alfonsemusic
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/alfonsemusic
Twitter: http://twitter.com/alfonsemusic

Generator

Alfonse - Generator

John

Fresh On The Net is a music blog hosted by Tom Robinson and Team Freshnet, offering independent artists an open door and a level playing field for their music. Our inbox is open at http://freshonthenet.co.uk every Monday to Thursday morning - if you share a track with us there it will be heard by every member of our moderation team.

IMPORTANT: 
Only send ONE track, and make sure the dropbox says "OPEN".  Sorry, but tracks sent while the dropbox is closed - or shared drectly with this Soundcloud account - will not get heard.

Maaike was born in Schiedam, a Dutch city in the shadow of Rotterdam’s oil refineries. Feeling inspired after a songwriting retreat in Scotland, she moved to the UK to study music. She recorded her debut album, Born Before the Wind, in Bath Spa, and now lives in Bristol.

Maaike writes story-telling songs about travels, remarkable people, and big issues. Her previous single, ‘Call of the Last Wildcat,’ is a charity single for the Scottish Wildcat, the UK’s most endangered animal.

Her new recordings are musically inspired by classic jazz. As a teenager, Maaike took guitar lessons from an elderly gentleman, who had never heard of contemporary artists like Oasis or Sheryl Crow. Instead, he taught her to play jazz standards from the Real Book.

‘The colourful chords and memorable melodies have always stayed with me’, Maaike says. ‘And that’s how I came to listen to phenomenal performers like Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. They were real, no pitch-correction or other tricks. That’s what I’m going for as well.’

Maaike’s music has been played on local and national radio. She’s also won the songwriting competitions of Glastonbury FM and University of the West of England.

“Delicate vocal, poised production, gorgeous chord changes”
– Tom Robinson, BBC Radio 6 Music

“A voice smoother than Dutch chocolate” 
– Music Eye UK

“Maaike’s voice is butterflies-inducing.”
– Neil March, Trust the Doc

All music is available from: https://maaikesiegerist.bandcamp.com/

A Place For The Heart

Maaike Siegerist

Recent comments

Perry Kardium

BLACK MIRROR

Related tracks